Hydrocarbon production infrastructure and facilities are subject to failure due to deposits. Deposits in the flow lines, well bores, formations, process equipment, pipelines, as well as other related equipment can reduce the ability of infrastructure to operate efficiently, and in a subterranean formation can effectively reduce affiance by plugging production flow paths. In extreme cases, deposits can render production infrastructure inefficient to the extent that the hydrocarbon production facility/infrastructure or oil/gas well is rendered useless. These deposits can consist of paraffin's, asphaltenes, heavy gravity oil, scale, hydrocarbon solids as well as other related deposits.
As oil and gas production moves to deeper and colder waters, deposits of paraffin and asphaltenes create multiple problems. These deposits can substantially reduce the inner diameter of piping restricting flow and ultimately blocking off the pipe. As this occurs, the increased interior surface roughness on the pipe wall also increases the pump pressure to move the petroleum product. The deposits will also accumulate in process vessels and storage tanks, necessitating intensive clean ups and disposal problems. The deposits can also interfere with valve operations and instrumentation. These problems are well documented in article entitled Deep Water Technology Trends In Offshore Oil And Gas Operations published in OIL WORLD November 2009 edition, which states:                Wax deposits display only limited solubility at moderate temperatures in many types of organic solvents and are virtually insoluble in aqueous solutions, although they can be re-melted (at 120 to 150° F.)” It is also mentioned that “the most common removal methods are mechanical removal, heat applications, using hot oil or electrical heating, applications of chemicals, (e.g., solvents, pour-point dispersants), and the use of microbial products.        
In today's economy, hydrocarbons are invaluable. They are used for fuel, lubricants and most plastics. As hydrocarbon prices have risen, many attempts have been made to increase hydrocarbon flow rates from oil and gas facilities as well as oil/gas wells and formations with paraffin/asphaltenes and scaling problems. Substantially all prior known treatments to remove these deposits have involved the use of solvents. It has been the practice to use solvents because it was believed that only hydrocarbon materials are effective in removing deposits. Deep Water Technology Trends In Offshore Oil And Gas Operations. 
One typical treatment practice is to heat a combination of diesel oil or a blend of aromatic or aliphatic solvent, or a combination of both to temperatures above 130° F. and inject it into lines or a pipe carrying hydrocarbons. It is well known that in laboratory experiments, this procedure will dissolve most paraffin and asphaltenes deposits. The key in using this technique is the heat and not only the solvent, because when this procedure is used in sub-sea removal operations, it is effectiveness can be limited due to the massive temperature drop. This is true for Xylene, Toluene, and other similar aromatic solvents; heat of some type is always required to do a thorough removal of deposits. This poses a need for an alternate and/or combination treatment described herein to not only enhance performance of the treatments, but to also reduce treatment costs. Some prior applications heat was required for the solvent to work. In using heat, there exists the potential for removing only the parts that are soluble in the solvent, not the whole plug which can make the plug harder to dissolve. In some cases the use of solvents and current chemical treatments are less effective as some chemicals reach cloud point and fall out before doing their work.
Acids are also used to remove scale that is deposited from the varying types of produced water that accompanies oil and gas production, however, aqueous systems to treat any type of processing equipment is typically used as a last resort. The separate handling and disposal of aqueous systems is problematic, as well as the disposal problems associated with chemically treated water has in the past been a major problem especially in offshore operations where disposal of produced water has to meet high standards to be disposed of. Acids have a very difficult time in actually dissolving mineral scale when crude oil is present. Due to this fact it has been a hit or miss proposition when using acid to remove mineral scale deposits.